Confidence through education in India

Education is an important element for any developingcountry. A growing economy creates new types of professions which are not just labourintense. These positions need to be filled by educated people that can allowthe country to manage its growth. Instruction is also important to form newentrepreneurs and a middle class who will create additional markets for newproducts not strictly related to the basic needs. These are just few exampleson the importance of education and not surprisingly 3 out of 4 organizationsfor which we are working for in India for the social sabbatical are educationrelated.

Through my experience in Parikrma and the success storiesfrom other organizations, I learn that education is also important from apsychological point of view. Knowledge is a crucial element to build confidencein people untouched by the economic revolution. The importance of the relationbetween education and confidence is so strong that is also revealed by the name chosen by one of the organizationswe work for: Head Held High.

In India education can help people to be more self-confidentby breaking down 3 barriers

The first barrier is economic related. The growing economyis creating a huge disparity. This disparity is not just between the super-richand the poor but also between an increasing middle class and the large amountof people living in the slums or in rural area. People that left out from theeconomic transformation can consider themselves inadequate or worth less than therising number of people around them able to reach a comfortable level of life.Unfortunately this sense of inadequacy is transmitted to their childrencondemning them to a precarious life as well. Education doesn`t just give thepossibility and the hope to get a slice of the new wealth but also a differentway of looking at themselves improving their life by reducing the importance ofwealth when they compare themselves to others .

The second barrier is typically Indian and it has to do withthe caste system. Despite the fact that the caste system has been abolished froma legal point of view immediately after the independence, it still plays animportant role in the Indian society condemning millions of people to amiserable life. The caste system doesn`t only regulate the relationship betweenpeople but impose a way of looking at yourself. If you belong to the class ofuntouchable (or Dalit composing 18% of Indian population), you are told andmade think that you are not equal to other people during your entire existence.The caste system assign a role and as long as the system is strong in thepeople’s mind, this role is never confronted no matter how bad is. Education provides awareness to people,providing an element that brings them to the same level of others helping todefy the role assigned by the caste system.

The third barrier has to do with the *** genre. India is apatriarchal system pushing the woman in a corner. In underprivileged anduneducated sector of Indian society women are considered objects. Western mediahave recently paid attention on recent cases of rape happened lately in Indiabut this is the tip of the iceberg as the discrimination of woman can takedifferent forms. For example if a woman becomes a widow, she lose the respectof her community becoming object of abuses as nobody protects her. The task of cleaning the roads is generallyassigned to women. Education is not onlya way for women to obtain self-awareness but forces men to see women from adifferent point of view and respect them.

Unfortunately we cannot ignore the fact that confidence andeducation are double edge swords. Despite the increasing disparity, Indiaremains a peaceful society. As long as the growing economy is able to occupythe increasing number of educated people, it will remain peaceful. In the momentthis will stop and the educated people will remain out of the economic processesthey will challenge the system on the base of the awareness of their conditionobtained through education. This awareness can generate anger that can betranslated into violence. Non- profit education organizations like Parikrmafortunately appear to be aware of this. For this reason they don’t payattention only on education but they try to model a new way of being indianable to find a compromise between awareness obtained througheducation/confidence and non-violence. Will this enough? Only time will tellus.